The New Alice, Middlesbrough

Facebook page of The New Alice - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The New Alice - www.facebook.com

Better than average Middlesbrough pub, although only one hand pump on the bar on the left hand side. Rest keg.

This one had been more than well described below. I believe all five of the cluster of Middlesborough micropubs are on the Micropub Association list and the one in the Middlesborough suburbs. It was quiet on my Tuesday evening visit. Although the three TVs were off there was a soundtrack playing which seemed to be mostly guitar rock. I found it rather dark, possibly to accentuate the candles that were on the tables. I wrote down that there were just two hand pumps here and only noted the beer I tried. This was Rooster's Yankee (£3.00) which was in good nick. Overall I found this one to be a bit average.

One block down from the Baker Street trio, this is another of Middlesbrough's many micro pubs, set in a typical shop converted premises. The narrow, single room has modern laminate flooring throughout and walls painted in a plain colour scheme but decorated with a few fancy framed mirrors, nice black and white photographs of the town and a number of magician themed posters. For such a small venue, the pub manages to offer a good deal of seating with quite a wide variety of options available. To the front there is a high table and bench built up from a brick base, which didn't look the most comfortable spot but at least provides an alternative, elevated perspective on proceedings. Elsewhere you can find hard wooden stools, standard tables and chairs, a drinking ledge with more stools and some decent pew formed booths, so plenty of choice. The bar is to the rear left and has a very simple counter and bar back. Unusually there was a TV screen on midway through the room, showing muted Match of the Day whilst music played at a surprisingly loud volume on this Saturday night visit. Of all the micro pubs visited around town on this particular evening, this one seemed the calmest and I was able to bag a seat and relax a while, having been stood up pretty much all night. The agreed number of handpulls in Middlesbrough micros appears to be three, and this unwritten rule was fully adhered to here as well, although unfortunately one beer was off, leaving a choice of Milestone Wicked Witch and Power Brewhouse High Frequency. Such restrictions on beer choice seems to correlate with consistently good ale quality and my pint of the High Frequency was certainly in fine condition. There were several keg options to compliment the ale selection, including a couple of ciders. This place seemed like an oasis of calm after the five micro pubs that preceded it and I enjoyed settling down here as closing time approached, relaxing over a very well kept pint. I suspect this place feels like it's more at the conservative end of the micro pub spectrum during the week, but the loud Saturday night music alone would be enough to disqualify it from the Micro Pub Association! This is another solid Middlesbrough venue and a dead cert for any crawl around the town centre.